Z>Z(c 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 




J SABBATH SCHOOLS AND CITIZENS 



GEORGETOWN, DC. 



\ ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, 



BOYCE'S GROVE, ON MONDAY, .1ULY 5TH, 1847; 




WALTER S. COX, ESQ. 



Published hy request. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY WM. Q, FORCE. 

1847. 





Class ^--l^-i^*— 

Book ---^^^3-- 

I 



ADDR ESS 



DELIVERED BKFORB THE 



SABBATH SCHOOLS AND CITIZENS 



GEORGETOWN, D. C, 



AT THEIR 



ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



HELD IN 



BOYCE'S GROVE, ON MONDAY, JULY 5TH, 1847, 



WALTER S COX, ESa 



Published by request. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BV WM. Q. FORCE. 
1847. 



G 3 55 






ADDRESS. 



^ This joyful anniversary has again assembled us together to exchange 

i felicitations and to mingle our orisons to the Giver of those blessings of 

which the occasion is a remembrancer. We have come up in solemn 
^ pageant to the great temple of nature — our incense, the spontaneous emo- 

i tion of gratitude — our choir music, the symphonies of nature's hundred 

i tongues. We have come to linger upon names redolent of merit, and to 

accord our humble tribute to men who grace the proudest gallery of por- 
•craits that old Time has gathered to his treasures. We have come to re- 
kindle that holy flame which, smouldering amid the selfish cares of every 
day life, leaps forth at the magic sound "our country," while discordant 
hearts are spelled to harmony, and, dropping the petty animosities of yes- 
terday, men wear the holiday garb of patriotism and undislinguishing 
charity. 

Oh! on this day of jubilee, what an electric current circles through 
the great heart of our country, stirring up the warm blood of youth, 
quickening the calmer pulse of age, deepening the flush on beauty's 
cheek and manhood's brow, and animating even the pulsele^ worship- 
pers of mammon, with a thrilling sense of the sweets of liberty. 

With the old, the burial places of memory yield up their dead, and 
.as the panorama of events goes in review before them, they join with 
swelling hearts in the glad acclaim arising from a thousand vallies 
where once solitude held unbroken sabbath. 

The young read in the times auspices of a glorious to-come, while in 
fancy they sketch their own paths bordered with flowers, arched with 
dreams, and peopled with bright, beckoning forms. 

And on a day like this, it becomes us, one and all, to escape from the 
narrow present, and as well to study the stern and bright realities of the 
past, as to look with interest for the pregnant issues of the future. We 
turn from the one, full of glory and encouragement, to find the other rich 
in promise of prosperity. We linger in the flood from sunset's golden 
urns, and turn to hail a dawn red with scintillant harbingers of rising 

glories. 

Especially does it behoove us to contemplate aright the great event 
of American Independence ; an event which brought to light a new de- 



4 

monstration of political truth; was part of a great system in the economy 
of the moral world ; was a new stage in the progressive destiny of the 
race; and formed one dependent and sustaining link in the golden chain 
of phenomena, which shall connect, on the one hand, creation — on the 
other, what the far off future shall disclose — man in his highest dignity 
and development, emancipated from all thrall, "dim miniature of greatness 
absolute." 

The power of society has been guided by three great principles : 
Honor, Knowledge, and Union. Unfortunately, unlike the chemical 
equivalents in the physical world, they have no definite natural propor- 
tion of combination. And, indeed, in the ancient world, such combina- 
tion was scarce known, but either the principle of union absorbed the 
greatest proportion of power, while the others remained comparatively 
inoperative, or these in turn arrogated an undue share, and without the 
other were imbecile and incflicient. 

The great object of modern contention has been, to give prominence 
to the principle of honor, which has its home with the people ; to en- 
lighten it with the knowledge of the few; and to give it eificiency with 
the principle of union, represented in the oneness of the governing 

power. 

This has beep the baule for regulated liberty, and only in the con- 
summation of these ends may we hope to realize that divine abstraction. 
In the concrete, this liberty has been a plant of slow growth and change- 
ful fortune, now crushed by the iron heel of power, now blasted by the 
pestilence of faction, now running into rank lu.xuriance, and now crowned 
with fairest bloom and fruitage in the genial atmosphere of virtue and 
and philosophy. It has been subject to manifold influences, deep or ap- 
parent, proximate or remote; and I shall deem it not inappropriate to this 
presence and occasion to glance briefly at that influence which the Chris- 
tian Church has exercised upon its progress. 

The fall of ancient Rome was followed by an almost total eclipse 
of ancient civilization. Society was long a rude chaos of conflicting 
elements, from which it required the influence of powerful agencies to 
educe order, harmony, and system. Laws were few and general, adapted 
only to the wants of nations destitute of the complicated arts of civili- 
zed life. At the same time, the spirit of the newly forming nations pet 
culiarly fitted them for the influence of whatever was calculated tp 
command awe, or enlist affection, and especially of what could meet that 
"mighty stream of tendency in the human mind" to grope after some- 
thing tangible in reference to the future world. Christianity was now at 



hand to proclaim its promises, to minister its consolations, to spread its 
light among the conquerors of decrepit Rome. To its agency, undoubt- 
edly, must we ascribe the vast illumination of mankind that followed its 
diffusion, and, in short, most of the great phenomena of modern history. 
This beacon, lit upon the cliffs of time, was the guide and power that re- 
deemed the race from its degradation, has been the well-spring of what 
of ligbt and truth have flashed from the gloom of error, has been the in- 
spiration of the patriot in striking the fetters from his countrymen, and of 
the philanthropist whose heart has throbbed responsive to the anguish of 
the oppressed, or exulted in their emancipation and improvement. 

At an early period, the influence of the Church extended to the most 
minute concerns, and all the diversified relations, of the social body. It 
prescribed the duties of the citizen and subject, no less than it swayed the 
throned monarch, inculcating obedience in the one and tempering with 
mercy the counsels of the other. 

Before their occupation of Southern Europe, tlie Goths had adopted 
the new faith, and exhibited its wholesome fruits as well in their morality 
as their laws and institutions. And it would be difficult to designate a 
more illustrious exemplar of wisdom nnd virtue than Theodoric, the 
Gothic monarch of Italy, whose wise laws and impartiality in their ad- 
ministration, whose devotion to the solid welfare and rational happiness 
of his subjects, place him in brilliant contrast with the imperial Cajsars. 
Nor was he alone ; but Alaric in war, and Totila in peace, displayed 
the same results of Christian influence, in infusing a milder spirit of con- 
quest and more enlightenment of civil polity. 

Laws were early reduced to systems among modern nations, founded 
either upon their own usages or the borrowed laws of Rome, which soon 
became appreciated by the sovereigns of modern Europe. Now, the in- 
fluence of the Church upon these ancient laws demands our scrutiny. 
However obscure the subject, yet a knowledge of some of the prominent 
facts of history, of the intrinsic scope and tendency of the new faith, and 
the visible results of some such great agency will avail to disclose some- 
thing of the operation of that silent cause which wrought, not with the 
rush of battles, or the glaring circumstance of conquest, but with invisible, 
yet more than battle force. That the Church effected the abrogation of 
much that was at war with its spirit, and ii.troduceJ much prolific of good 
into all the earlier systems of modern Europe can scarcely be questioned. 
Its traces are discernible as far as the history of the laws can be accu- 
rately pursued. In the old English law, for example, based upon custom, 
some rules of Mosaic law, among other features bear witness to the early 



propagation of the faith to that island, then the UUima Thule of the 
civilized world. 

How far, especially upon the continent, early jurisprudence was in- 
debted to the Church we are unable to define with anything like certainty. 
The laws themselves every where indicated a free spirit, and could only 
belong to communities inspired with rational views of the relation be- 
tween prince and people ; they were adapted to afford security to person 
and property, and left little scope to judicial discretion. 

Now, a great part of this is due to the influence of the Church upon 
the royal character. It mitigated the lust of power, it inspired with re- 
spect for the claims of the many, it prompted effort for their melioration, 
and induced express recognition and guaranty of their rights. We have 
already alluded to one example of a Christian king in the early history 
of modern society. Later, we find the illustrious, though not immacu- 
late, Charlemagne, owing much of the Christian tone that marked his 
government to the fact that he, like Alfred of England, availed of the co- 
operation of his bishops in framing laws for his empire. And in those 
laws are the elements of the very institutions that have been approved as 
the surest guaranties of civil liberty. National Assemblies were estab- 
lished by him, and the people by deputy made a party to government. 
Thus, to the Estates of Nobles and Clergy were added that very Third 
Estate whose awakened thunder tones, in the eighteenth century, startled 
all of Europe's old despotisms, and aroused a spirit of free inquiry that 
is even now at work in the reformation of abuse, and in working out the 
elevation of the people. And when the Saxon heptarchy had been con- 
solidated into one kingdom, the excellent Alfred, deeming it his highest 
glory to transmit a legacy of wise institutions, extracted from the mass 
of diverse laws and particular customs the elements of an uniform system, 
which secured the impartial administration of justice, and gave the sanction 
of charter to those rights exercised and enjoyed by a free and spirited 
people. 

Now, in all this, who docs not discern concessions of monarchy and 
precedents of popular privilege ! If, then, I am asked why I thus dwell 
upon obsolete codes and the virtues of kings, whose names are but linger- 
ing memorials of faded greatness, I answer, because these ancient laws 
are the seeds of modern fruits, because they contain the germs of those 
great ideas of human rights, the development of which has been the strug- 
gle recorded by modern history — because they have never been a dead 
letter, but a living power. However antiquated, their influence upon 
modern constitutions brings them near to us, and makes us to recognize 



in them a source of that very freedom which we now enjoy. They m- 
spired the mass with ideas of their own, which have never been extin- 
guished. Even under the iron bound system of feuds they were not for- 
gotten, but the vassal had his defined rights, which he understood, how- 
ever they were trampled upon by violence, or attempted to be obscured 
by usurpation. All the abuses attending the relation of lord and feuda- 
tory failed to extinguish a popular sense of right, and the idea o( privi- 
lege was throughout sustained by one feature of the system — certainty 
in the services rendered by a portion of the vassals. Now, the ancient 
free institutions of a people are not likely to fade from their remembrance, 
but have ever kept fresh the idea of freedom as something tangible and 
worthy of attainment — a recollection which has nerved to heroic effort — 
sublime sacrifice— triumphant struggle. Happy the nation rich in recol- 
lections of a glorious past ; whether glorious from the peaceful existence 
or the manly battle for free government! Thrice happy we, whose 
earliest national history is of blood bought liberty, and of institutions 
which will exert a potent influence "till the last syllable of recorded time." 
A most striking point in the importance of these ancient laws is that 
their definiteness has prevented modern revolution from proving, ut- 
terly abortive. With nothing to remember and cling to as a tried and 
proved blessing, a people who have subverted a long established oppres- 
sion are unable to check the impulse they have received, and, becoming 
the sport of stormy passions, are hurried headlong to strike hands with 
anarchy and pledge confusion, and thus one hydra head of despotism is 
destroyed only to make place for two. Such is the history of Turkish 
and other Eastern revolutions. Far difTerent the story of England's vi- 
cissitudes. Notwithstanding the oppressive laws of William the Con- 
queror, the ancient laws of Edward the Confessor were ever remembered 
with affection, and were ever the rallying ground of the English in re- 
sisting every encroachment upon their liberties. They were thundered 
in the ears of the mailed Norman, and demanded with such emphasis by 
a people sensible of right and wrong, that kings quailed before them and 
sought conciliation by repeated concession. Magna Charta, wrested from 
King John by the Barons, with the countenance and sympathies of the 
people, was deemed a restoration of ancient privileges, and not a royal 
grant of new ones. And so are all other concessions extorted from English 
kings due to a spirit of liberty, fostered by recollections of rights and princi- 
ples, consecrated by antiquity of origin, and indirectly ascribableto the m- 
fluence of the Christian Church in developing those rights. Deriving 
our institutions from England, originally, we too are indebted to the same 



8 

remote source for those seed — principles which were wafted across the 
main on the wings of discovery, to expand in this more genial clime to 
Lubler growth and fuller bloom. 

Another view of the influence of the Church has respect partly to the 
circumstances which have surrounded its growth. Its history is origin- 
ally of contest against pressure from without. In this conflict it arose, 
AntcEUs-like, with fresh vigor from every new prostration. Scarce was 
this work accomplished, when the serpent of strife and envies nestled in 
its very bosom. Yet, from this very circumstance, it is belived that results 
of not unmixed evil have been derived. 

It is the opinion of a modern German philosopher, that in his prime- 
ral state of innocence and simplicity, the faculties of man preserved a 
happy balance and wrought in unison toward the same end; but that when 
discord once marred this halcyon scene of peace, not only did the race 
became divided into many nations, but the psychological structure of man 
become deranged, the faculties lost their harmonious play and attained dif- 
ferent degrees of prominence. And, as in any production of individual intel- 
lect, either methodizing Reason, or beautifying Imagination, or profound 
Understanding, or the energetic Will, will manifest itself, so the intellectual 
character of nations in the ancient world developed respectively the same 
distinct characteristics. Thus, among the Chinese, predominated Reason, 
the faculty conversant with grammatical structure and systematic arrange- 
ment, or the over-refining mistress of systems and conceits in science and 
morals. In India, on the other hand, Imagination is discernible in the 
mysticism of her philosophy and the poetry of her mythology. Egypt 
again, the fountain head of the intellectual part of civilization, was distin- 
guished by her profound Understanding and scientific depth. The ener- 
getic, ever active and undyingWill characterized the chosen people of God. 
In point of pure intellect, they sustained no comparison with surrounding 
nations; but theirs was a moral pre-eminence, requiring the application of 
a different criterion of excellence and preparing them for an enlightenment 
far superior to the illumination of Paganism. 

The intelligent Will, too, in higher development, is the faculty charac- 
teristic of Christianity. It is not hostile to intellectual progress and the 
triumphs of science, but it lifts its aspirations to loftier aims than lying phi- 
losophy and vain deceit : it treats death asthe gate of life, and nerves to the 
endurance of torment and martyrdom, as transient pangs. Hence its chief 
features are, the impulse to do and the fortitude to xvffer — the impulse 
to follow with undeviating resolution the persuasions of faith, the dictates 
of conscicncOj and the fortitude to bear any infliction of man's wrath, rather 



than yield one letter of its creed, or swerve one jot or tittle from its form- 
ularies of duty. 

However anomalous it appears at first blush, yet it is a striking truth , 
that in this Will — the fruit of faith in a religion of peace — is the very 
element of that resistance which has been the efficacious means of achiev- 
ing human liberty. 

A Domitian and a NerOj surrounded with all the insignia of absolu- 
tism, could not extort retraction from men to whom martyrdom was the 
price of perennial bliss, and eternal wo the penalty of apostacy. Upon 
the fall of Paganism, however, the idea of resistance to absolute govern- 
ment was suspended; and to account for its revival is no trifling specula- 
tion, when we consider what sway despotic government achieved over 
the heart and head of mankind, and how deeply rooted was that persua- 
sion of a divine right in kings, that arch folly and species of intellectual 
apotheosis which found open champions in England as late as the last of 
the Stuarts. 

In the opinion of Guizot, the feudal system contributed principally 
to nurture this important idea of resistance. But it must be remembered 
that this was only fruitful in the insubordination of turbulent barons, and 
never produced concerted eflbrt of the people against their oppressors. 
Besides, in France, where the power of the barons was greatest, this very 
circumstance is supposed by De Lolme to have led to the establishment 
of an absolute central monarchy which long repressed every element of 
opposition. It was not until the feudal system had in many places re- 
ceived its quietus, that we behold the phenomenon to be explained, spring- 
ing from another origin — I mean, the agitation of religious opinion which 
led to the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. In speakmg of 
sects, I shall not designate any one as distinctively Christian, nor shall I 
speak so much of their opposition to each other as to the temporal powers 
and appliances enlisted in behalf of religious creeds. I shall speak of 
the Reformation in no sectarian spirit, and not as the overthrow of religious 
error, but as the struggle of the Christain religious principle against the 
might of kings and princes, a struggle that revived the idea of resistance 
to absolute government, which seemed to have acquired a prescriptive le- 
gitimacy, a struggle, the commencement of the great battle for rational 
liberty, and the connected precursor of those triumphs over which millions 
of freemen now sing their paeans and shout their eureka! 

The resuhs of this great contest attest its magnitude. The king- 
doms of the south where it did not rage, are comparatively imbecile. In 
the north, we behold, in some nations, the forms of free government, and 
where these are wanting, we yet see much of practical liberty. 



10 

The zeal of the Reformers awakened a corresponding opposition in 
sovereigns adhering to the Catholic faith, and the long struggle com- 
menced which terminated, Immediately, in religious — and, more remote- 
ly, in civil liberty. This contest broke the spell that had bound society 
in vassalage to kings ; it stripped oflT the robe of sanctity that veiled the 
throne; and, with Ithuriel touch, exposed the royal pageant in its true light 
to once humiliated subjects ; it showed sovereigns to be men of like pas- 
sions and infirmities with themselves, and alike liable to errors of deepest 
import. 

Now, the will to be free in matters of conscience is identical with 
the will to be free in matters of state; the energy of resistance inspired 
by religious faith is fit preparative to meet the encroachments of temporal 
tyranny. Men who had canvassed the pretensions of a priesthood and 
reasoned of their own spiritual destiny, were not likely to acquiesce in 
the assumptions of temporal . tyranny. Men who inquired by what au- 
thority Popes deposed or created princes, were naturally led to investi- 
gate the titles of the latter. Men who taught that the community might 
select their own spiritual guides and frame their own creeds, were natu- 
rally led to inquire what were the people's rights in the body politic in re- 
ference to choice of rulers and constitutions. From the time when the 
faculties of law and theology in the University of Wittenberg declared 
that men were not bound to obey the Emperor in matters of faith, the 
claims of such potentates underwent continual discussion. Luther and 
the other reformers were the first men in modern Europe who fearlessly 
discussed the mutual obligations of prince and people, and proclaimed the 
rights of man and abuses of tyrants to an astonished world, to whom they 
appeared strange and startling truths. These events failed not to difTuse 
more rational political views, that eventually effected a radical reforma- 
tion in the form or spirit of European government. 

It must be observed that practical liberty may exist under any form 
of government, and that the excellence of republicanism consists simply 
in the safeguards with which it surrounds the important trust of public 
power. The institutions of Europe were not all radically subverted by 
the reformation, but received a modification in spirit or form which was 
impressed permanently. 

The power of sovereigns adopting the reformation was actually 
strengthened by long co-operation of their subjects, but the very circum- 
stances of the gain were ominous of retribution awaiting its abuse. 
These sovereigns acquired a stability resting upon new principles; they 
have subsequently made new professions to their subjects and have felt re- 



11 

strained from oppressing by a sense of what the people may do, should 
sufficient stimulus arouse them to concerted action. Unless her king 
prove faithless to his pledges, Prussia will be an example of practical 
liberty under the forms of monarchy. Her code of laws, celebrated as the 
finest of modern Europe, proclaims substantially those very rights of 
man which were heralded forth in France as new, in 1789. And it may 
be mentioned, as a feature of her jurisprudence, that the sovereign daily 
answers the suit of the private citizen in his own courts, a privilege denied 
the latter even in our country, to the disgrace of republican America. 

The forms of free government also resulted where the reformation 
encountered the wrath of government. 

The little city of Geneva was a spot on which the principles of re- 
form had an early triumph. Expelling its Prince-bishop, it governed 
itself for nearly three centuries and supported protracted wars against 
enemies combining to enslave it. A geographical atom, it was the centre 
of an influence extending to the most powerful states of Europe. It 
cradled the religion of Henry IV, and the Protestant party of France, 
who, though crushed by the talents of Richelieu, taught a lesson of de- 
fiance to oppressors that was never lost on the French people. Here, too, 
the refugees of Queen Mary's reign found an asylum, and imbibed those 
principle of independence and republicanism which produced many of 
the known events of English history; hence, also, proceeded those sects 
of Presbyterians and Independents, whose agitations contributed to the 
revolution of 1640, and the overthrow of Charles I. 

The emancipation of the Netherlands was another result of the 
spread of liberal opinions. Embracing reform, they attracted the ven- 
geance of Philip II, whose armed legions and all the atrocity of Alva 
could not stifle opinion or subdue the stern resolve inspired by religious 
faith ; and the Batavians formed a republic which long sustained a com- 
petition with the first powers of Europe. 

In France, the persecutions endured by the Huguenots engendered 
a spirit of hostility ^which was propagated through successive generations, 
and undoubtedly had an efl^ect in preparing the hearts of the people for 
their great revolution. However shocking the enormities which attend- 
ed this event, he must be behind the age who does not recognise in it a 
great movement for the cause of human liberty that permanently affected 
surrounding nations, overthrew the cumbrous despotism of France, and 
elevated the people to a due appreciation of their rights ; so that in 1830 
the first signals of returning despotism, in the censorship of the press 
and other abuse«, cost the rash Charles X his crown. 



12 

In England, the Roman Catholics had long suffered from legislation, 
which is the standing disgrace of a civilized age; but they were too few 
and feeble to offer effectual resistance. The Protestant Dissenters also 
had their share of persecution meted out to them. Charles I endeavored 
to establish Episcopacy in Scotland, and aroused a spirit of hostility which 
was inflamed by his usurpation of political power and flagrant outrages 
upon the constitutional rights of the subject, and only the ends of justice 
were accomplished by his overthrow. The same feelings, continued or 
revived, gave rise to the misfortunes of James II. 

On the whole, at no period in English history were such advances 
made in the development of rational views in affairs of state ; and ever 
since, the Commons have been the great power in government, and the 
sure bulwark of constitutional liberty. 

Coeval with this dynasty was the growth of freedom in this Western 
World. The established Church of England lending its countenance to 
the doctrines of prerogative, the Dissenters naturally adhered to the most 
liberal views of popular rights. In politics, as in religion, they exhibited 
the zeal of reformers and a love of freedom which wrought with the 
power of faith. Such were the men whom persecution drove to lay, on 
this continent, the foundations of the fair fabric whose magnificence and 
simplicity challenge the admiration of mankind. Men so prepared as 
were these hardy pioneers, found every thing here favorable to the reali- 
zation of that almost Utopian condition which had filled the bright dreams 
of philanthropy from the age of Plato, To the Roman Catholics of 
Maryland be given the praise of setting to the world the first brilliant 
example of universal toleration. But all the colonists were penetrated 
with a deep disgust for the antiquated forms of European despotism. 
They had come to a land where no proud tyrant's minion could invade 
their worship; where they erected the rude altar, and sent up the incense 
of morning prayer, and sang the vesper hymn, Avith the wild wood for a 
witness, and its roar to swell the solemn diapason. They had come to a 
land where political science was to be built up anew, and they resolved 
to lay its foundations deeply and broadly upon the everlasting rock of 
truth. 

It were useless to pursue our country's history through all its trials 
and triumphs — we are free, and owe our freedom measurably to the 
mighty heavings of religious emotion. The principles of our progeni- 
tors germinated untofruitsof wisdom, until, in 177G, a new political rev- 
elation flashed upon a benighted world, a new star arose above the hori- 
zon, and nations flocked to worship the light of its rising. I know no 



13 



,„g .„ defy fortune and to tilt with fate, uttered thetr S'-' fi;';^;.^, 
dele, anLared the struggle o„ the --- ;„ ;\ ^it'.if.^; 

:,t:rer:t;rrrstar^.t"r„a..^^^^^^^^ 

„I wa i lumTned by the chastened splendor of all the assocated vtrt e . 
It s"od before his country and his God unpolluted by any sta.n of v.ce. 

" And the elements 
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, this was a man." 

Illustrious Washington ! 

'« It is our pride, 
An honest pride, and let it be our praise. 
To offer to the passing stranger's gaze 
His mansion and his sepulchre ; both plain 
And venerably simple ; such as raise 
A feeling more accordant with his name, 
Than if a pyramid formed his monumental fame." 
Upon us, my countrymen, rests the grave responsibility "t upholdt^S 
in their purity the institut.ons transmitted to us, impressed with the w 
„m f our forgathers. Let us not be beguiled with the ■llus.ons of n.,1- 
tary glory, nor allow aggressive wars to flood our country wth demoral- 
„i„l rnfluences, and, ,t may be, smooth the path to .-j™™ /espot sm _ 
The Genius of Liberty, as she keeps her anxious v.g.ls by the cradle of 
her young Colut^bia, is startled as she hears her nurshng tossmg m a 
troubled dream of bloodshed, rapine, and conquest I 

Montesquieu not. inaptly assigned virtue as the foundafon of repub 
lies. In thl everv thing rests on the broad basis of pubhc op.nton, and 
whether thts shall be the expression of radicaUsrrr and 'i'^-^^ I'f" 
.iousness,or shall be sobered and -''S'^'^^^f ^^"'l^"f,t" ° 
moral and religious obligation, is the issue pregnant with -eal or wo. 

Without national virtue, an Athenian mob became the pot o 
demo" cues and IVIacedonian bribes ; without this, a Roman populace fel 
auhe°feet of the C.sars and exultingly surrendered the priceless boon of 
lir 1 b ty : without this, France forgo, her firs, generous emofons and 
d la^ed .'he disgusting spectacle of mob supremacy without th. no 
free in'sttations ever did or ever »"' ^W\"'e. «- "7 ^^ '^^J; 
And henco again the importance of Christianity is manifesto, m lU con 
MbuUoT.0 that national virtue essential to qualify a people for .te.njoy. 



14 

ment of free government. Certainly nothing is so efficacious in develop- 
ing the character of the upright citizen, in silencing the motives of sel- 
fishness, and in compacting men, with a chain of kindred sympathies, 
like heaven's over-arching bow spanning from horizon to horizon, as if 
to bind the nations in one brotherhood of love. 

I have thus feebly endeavored to sketch some of the influences which 
the Christian church appears to me have exercised upon the progress of 
civil liberty. 

Americans ! j'ours is a trust to be administered to exalted objects. 
Did Napoleon amid the sands of Egypt inspire his troops with the declara- 
tion that centuries looked down upon them from the pyramids? Believe 
me, from every monument of the past, all ages look down upon you and 
your efforts in the great moral battle for the well being of universal 
man ! 

In these our humble schools are youth taught to consecrate to heaven 
the firstlings of the heart. Let them go forth panoplied in serene faith, 
10 battle for truth and right, implacable foes of tyranny in the one and 
the many. Then shall the little fountain of good unsealed here, spread 
into streams, and these shall lift their exhalations which shall gather 
into clouds and sail away to drop their fertilizing showers upon distant 
fields. 

Daughters of America! peerless among the fair of every clime, you 
are not cyphers in society, but yours is a part of infinite importance. 
However silent, yet is the influence of woman deep, sure, powerful, and 
abiding. There are those linked to you by the silken cords of affec- 
tion — brothers, kindred, lovers, sons ; animate them with the sentiments 
which should grace the citizen, tab patriot, the man. 

May heaven shed its holiest influences on the glorious cause of pro- 
gress ; that coming ages may realize the hopes and visions of patriotism, 
wherein she listens with prophetic hearing to the jubilee of freedom rising 
from ten thousand hills and plains and mountain sides, to be echoed 
among the rocky barriers of the west and flung back from their snowy 
scalps to mingle with ocean's chorus; and wherein she views with the 
eye of prophecy the increasing triumphs of those immutable principles of 
eternal justice which shall henceforth wield a growing power, till the 
purpose of man's earthly destiny is fulfilled, and time shall melt into 
cierniti/. 



O-t^XJ 






,*^' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0011 



783 159 • 



f^' 



mm^^ 



